


snow day

by yonderdarling



Series: that hashtag vault lyfe [6]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Gen, M/M, Snow, as written by australians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 02:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11303730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yonderdarling/pseuds/yonderdarling
Summary: A trip before the events of World Enough and Time.





	snow day

**Author's Note:**

> Hammered out, un-betaed, posted in the emotional turmoil following World Enough and Time. Thanks to auroralmelody for their advice on snow, even if I really made a botched job of it and gave up.

There's a planet - well, there's many planets.

There's a tiny planet with purple grass that you can walk around in about two hours, and another planet where all the settlements float on clouds. A planet that's connected to its own moon with a fast-connected, hermetically sealed escalator - that is, until some asteroid cracks the uncrackable shaft and she, Nardole and the Doctor spent the next forty-five minutes panicking, trying to convince the authorities that a) the unbreakable shaft is cracked and will break open, leading to b) the death of all currently on the escalator and so c) they need to evacuate ASAP and d) that his profit margins aren't that important.

There's a planet the Doctor takes them to,with four moons made of crystal (she can see that, as they shimmer iridescent across the sky and reflect faintly coloured patterns on the ground), and it snows for half of its 777 day year, and is perfectly balmy and springlike for the other half. It's midway through the snowseason when the Doctor takes them there, the snow coated in the reflected colours of the moon, lilac, green, pink, blue. The trees are huge black spiny things, casting long, strange shadows.

"Go for a walk," the Doctor says, ushering Bill and Nardole out the doors. "Missy and I need to reset something on the engine, and it's going to get loud and hot and deoxygenated in here. Don't eat the snow."

"Lemme get a coat first," says Bill, shoving back inside, awkwardly glancing at Missy as she sits, ankles crossed, on the console. "And some gloves."

"It's a tiny planet, you can walk to the equinox line and back in about three hours," says the Doctor, upon her return. "Nice views. A frozen waterfall, this time of year."

Missy's still on the console, fixing Nardole with a smug look.

"You should have packed them a lunch," says Missy. "Spotted dick, watermelon. Something with aubergines."

"I hate aubergine," Bill says, and Nardole nods vigorously in agreement.

"I love a good bit of eggplant," says Missy, and somehow makes it sound sexual, which it probably - Bill thinks of the eggplant emoji, and tries to hide her grimace. "Take your time, kids."

Bill brings her coat and hat back outside, pauses. "Doctor, why shouldn't we eat the snow?"

"It's alien snow," says Missy. "It's mostly water, but with a bit more of a potassium kick. That's why it will feel a little strange under your feet."

"Yes - yes," says the Doctor, staring at Missy. "What, no insult or namecalling to go with that decent advice?"

"Are you asking for a bit of humiliation, my dear? Because I can deliver."

"Time to go!" Bill declares. 

The Doctor keeps his face neutral, set, as he waves them off. Once they're beyond the treeline, Bill pauses, the snow firm under her boots.

"Are they going to shag?"

"Probably," says Nardole. "That said, that said. The engine has been giving funny readouts recently."

"How…do they shag?" Bill asks, grimacing, because she totally knows the answer. "They do, don't they. In a weird Time Lordy way that probably involves, I don't know - headdresses and a weird handshake and some kind of tea ceremony?"

Nardole stares into the middle distance, remembering the time he found Professor Song and the Doctor on the Darillium kitchen table, going at it in blatant disregard for food hygiene rules, and the broken crockery on the floor around them.

"Yes," he says. "So it's probably best we get well away."

The pair begin to walk again.

"So in the Vault," Bill says.

"Oh yes."

"So it's a Sex Vault."

"Yes."

"The Doctor - has been keeping a woman in a box, in his basement - "

"Yes. Though she was a very bad woman - oh, that's - "

"No, that doesn't sound good at all."

 

*** * ***

 

The waterfall is stunning, and the walk back is easy, and the TARDIS console is still open, and there are little highly-polished mechanical bits lying on dropcloths in seemingly specific order when they get back. All in all, it seems likely sex has not occurred in their absence.

"But I want a sandwich," says Nardole, when Missy bars him from coming in.

"If you come in, you'll knock something out of place, and the artron makeup of the - "

"Let me remind you, Miss Missy, that I can pilot the TARDIS - "

Missy snorts. She leans on the doorframe, gives them a look that's simultaneously chastising and sexy. "The Doctor's grabbing you something to eat. And there's folding chairs, there, look. If you wish to sit and wait."

"Can I have my book?" Bill asks, leaning over Nardole's shoulder. "I left it in the pink sitting room. It's A Wrinkle In Time."

"Hope you're not reading that for its educational content, because it's very outdated," says Missy. "I could do you a couple of cheat sheets - "

"Could you just get it, please?"

Missy sighs, dramatically. "Fine." She turns and heads back into the TARDIS.

With a wary glance at Bill, Nardole makes to step over the threshold.

"Hey, you heard what she said, back, out!" comes the Doctor's voice. He steps out of the TARDIS, a picnic basket in his hand. "There's delicate instruments everywhere, don't need artronless bodies messing up the chemical balance."

"I've got artron in me," says Nardole. "And so does Bill - we've both travelled with you!"

The Doctor hands the basket to Bill. "Not the right kind, I'm afraid. The difference between hormones you're born with, and the ones you get from chicken nuggets."

"Ew," says Bill, looking in the basket.

"No, there's no eggplant, those are moonpeaches," says the Doctor. "They just look like eggplants."

"I meant ew at the nuggets comment," says Bill. "I'm not going to be able to eat nuggets for like - " oh, who is she kidding. "Five hours. Maybe six."

"Book!" says Missy, and her hand comes towards the TARDIS entrance, hits up against something that colours the air around her fingers bright orange. She drops the book, swears. "Does that have to be turned up so high?"

The Doctor looks back at Missy. She sets her jaw, retreats out of sight.

"We'll just be an hour or two," the Doctor says. "Eat, read, converse, whatever you do to fill in time when I'm not around."

 

*** * ***

 

Bill and Nardole do eat, and then Bill finishes A Wrinkle in Time, and then she shoves a handful of snow down Nardole's coat.

"You'll - pay for that," says Nardole, struggling up and chasing her. "You'll pay!"

 

*** * ***

 

When they're allowed back into the TARDIS, Bill pauses over the threshold. She looks at Missy, who's all greasy and sweaty from working under the engine, and turns and goes back outside.

She scoops up a handful of snow and forms it into a small ball, carries it back into the console room.

"Here," she says to Missy, trying to go for firm but kind, and Missy, bemused, holds her hands out. Bill tips the snow into her oil-smeared palms.

"Thank you," says Missy softly, cupping her hands carefully. "Thanks."

"You know - it's, nothing," says Bill, waving a hand. "I'm going to - I'm going to have a bath. It's cold out there."

"i'm sure it is," says Missy with a strange tone. "Hey, Doctor, look!"

"What is - " the Doctor says, turning, and Missy nails him in the face with her snowball.

Bill bursts into shocked laughter. Nardole claps his hands over his mouth, squeaks in horror. Missy sniggers, and the Doctor keeps his face carefully neutral, brushing snow out of his hair and eyebrows, off his shoulders.

"Oh no," says Nardole, as Missy splutters with laughter.

"I'll get you for that," says the Doctor, and Missy turns on her heel and sprints off, her laughter echoing through the hallways.

He sighs, takes a moment to straighten his coat out. Then, clearly trying to hide a smile, the Doctor hustles to the TARDIS door, reaches out and grabs a handful of snow, and runs after her.

"Are they….flirting?" Bill asks.

"I hope not," says Nardole. "So probably."

There's a shriek, and some more laughter, and Nardole shakes his head. He starts typing away at the console, frowns. In the distance, something smashes. Nardole frowns harder, shudders. He adjusts his glasses and looks at the scanner screen.

"Engine's still cooling off," he says. "We can't leave until the temperature is down." He taps the screen. "But yes, the readings are much steadier. Perhaps she is helping."

"I'm going to have a bath," says Bill, stretching out her chillblained fingers. "Want to watch a film later?"

"I suppose," says Nardole. "Nothing too scary. That movie with the fox and the berries - "

"Nardole, Zootopia is not scary," says Bill. "I mean, the parallels with real-life experiences of racism and prejudice aside - "

"It's terrifying. Sloths? Terrifying. Berries that make you crazy? Bone-chilling."

Bill opens her mouth, closes it. Gives up. She goes to her room, shucks her coat and finds her bath things, decides to go to the big pink bathroom with the thirty-two taps and the picture of the cute mermaid. She steps out into the hallway and picks a direction, and starts walking.

Distantly, there's a shout and the sound of something banging, and Missy laughing hysterically. Bill tries to take the long way round wherever the Doctor and Missy are, but finds herself rounding a corner and seeing -

The Doctor, holding Missy by her upper-arms, talking to her. He's got his patronising, "I know you can do better" tone and face on. Missy looks simultaneously smug, chastised, and has that awful look of longing in her eyes. Even as Bill tries to sneak back around, both Time Lords turn their heads to look at her.

"S-sorry," Bill says quickly, retreating.

"I'm going to bed," Missy snaps, and she brushes past Bill and up a staircase that wasn't there before, her heels loud on the steps. "Don't follow me, I'm distraught."

Bill waits out of sight of the Doctor, rocking backwards and forwards, and there's a dull thump. She peers around the corner again, sees the Doctor shaking his hand, grimacing in pain. He swears.

"That's a bit….aggressively manly, for you," Bill says awkwardly. "Doctor?"

The Doctor rubs his own knuckles, grits his teeth. "Bill."

"Sometimes - my foster mum says - " she wilts slightly under his glare, forges on. "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

"Am I the honey or vinegar in this situation? Who's the fly?"

"Well, you look like you've been drinking it," Bill says, aiming for levity and missing. "Um. Missy's the fly. I know she's done bad stuff. A lot of bad stuff. But if she's been good - "

"She's trying," says the Doctor, and his voice is oddly tight. "She is."

"Maybe try and reward her more, than like - pushing her to do better," Bill says.

"So who's the honey?"

"I don't know - " Bill says, wondering what Time Lords like. "Get her a new….laser sonic ratchet set, or something. Does she like chips as much as you?"

"She had a laser spanner once," the Doctor says, his expression changing again. "No, no, not that."

"Something from Lush? Well, like, something nice. Do Time Lords like bath bombs?"

"Something nice. I got her a piano. That piano, you saw it. I got that for her."

"You got - how did you move it?" Bill asks. "Look, never mind. I'm cold, and I want a bath, and you two need to stop being…weird. Nardole's enough weird."

 

*** * ***

 

After a bath, and a snack, and then sitting through Chicken Run with a shaking Nardole - and the film is much scarier than Bill remembers - Bill ends up sitting in the console room, watching the colours of the moons on the snow outside, slowly working her way through another Madeline L'Engel book. She dozes off.

Footsteps. Bill lifts her head, opens her eyes. The Doctor is pulling a case of something towards the TARDIS doors. He throws it open, revealing it's full of odd grapefruit-sized white lights, which pulse slowly on and off. As Bill watches, unseen, the Doctor totes them outside, a few at a time, and arranges them in a rough circle before the TARDIS. He uses the last few to make a narrow path from the door to the circle, brings out his sonic screwdriver, and fiddles with the settings.

Bill wants to go. Something's going to happen.

She waits until the Doctor vanishes back into the depths of the TARDIS before tucking the book into her dressing gown and creeping up the corridors to her room.

 

*** * ***

 

She's exhausted, but sleep doesn't come. Piano, piano, piano. Missy sits in the music room, chewing the inside of her mouth, playing something by Chopin - he never actually wrote it down, but he'd performed it for her privately, and it had a good bit of passion in it - eying off the Doctor's guitar collection. She could just smash one.

A knock at the door. She takes her hands off the keys.

"No, Nardole, I'm not going to teach you the Merry Go Round suite again."

"It's me," says the Doctor. "May I come in?"

"Do I have a choice?"

A pause. "I'll go away if you don't want to talk."

Missy runs her tongue over her teeth. "Come in."

The Doctor comes in, snow in his hair and a tired, soft smile on his face. He smells of the cold outside, sharp, tin like, a touch of salt. "Hi. Sorry about before. Can - can I show you something? I've done something."

Missy turns away from him, plays a quick run of notes. "I told you, duct tape wouldn't hold those spark plugs in."

"No, I did something to say thank you."

"As Bill inferred?"

"Bill didn't do anything."

"I heard you two talking," Missy says. "Doctor. I'm - I'm trying. I'm trying. I have tried." She hits the keys. "I am trying."

"Please come with me," he says, and she looks back at him. The Doctor holds out his hand. "I'm trying."

"You certainly are."

Still. Missy sets her jaw, stands, and ignores his outstretched hand, even as her own fingers curl and uncurl, wanting to feel his skin on her skin. The Doctor lets his arm drop, and she trails after him through the TARDIS hallways and into the console room.

The Doctor opens the doors, and bows, sweeping his arm out onto the snowy planet. Missy's jaw drops, and he smiles wide at her.

He's extended the TARDIS security shell for her. She can go outside.

"My Lady Mistress," he says, still bowing, and she can't breathe, can't talk. "Stay inside the lights," he adds, which takes a little something from the moment.

"Seriously?" she asks, and the Doctor nods. "I can go outside?"

"You can."

Then, she's stepping out of the TARDIS, and the snow goes crunch under her shoe, and she holds onto the doorframe as she steps outside, fills her lungs with alien air, free of the filtered tang of the TARDIS system, and sees the alien moons, the skinny trees, and she turns to see the Doctor stepping behind her.

She's left footprints in the snow.

"Doctor - " she says. "Doctor." There's the sensation of warmth on her cheek, and Missy reaches up to touch her face. "I - "

He's smiling at her, but he looks nervous. Somewhere in that expression, she can see the face of the first boy he ever was, who tried to kiss her behind the chemistry classroom and missed.

"I know why I'm crying," she says, and her voice breaks, and the Doctor nods. "Oh, Doctor."

Missy takes a few more steps, the snow loud beneath her feet, the silence of the planet in winter echoing in her ears. She takes another breath, steps closer to one of these lights.

"Modified atmospheric shell boosters," she says, approvingly.

"Please don't - step outside," the Doctor says, still over by the TARDIS. "My first-aid certificate expired last century and I've forgotten how that BeeGees song goes."

"No," says Missy. "No, no, I won't."

She looks up at the stars, and gasps. They're pearly silver and white, faintly pink and pale yellow, against the dark purple sky.

"We missed most of the moonset," the Doctor says. "Sorry. I, I didn't plan this. They'll be completely gone soon."

Missy spins, watching the sky, the chill cutting through her skirt.

"I'll get you a - "

"No," says Missy. "Doctor. Stay with me. Look at all these stars, they're beautiful."

He takes a step towards her. "I'll stay."

"Stay," Missy says, and then she laughs, not a cackle, but a laugh like when she wins second prize in a beauty contest in Monopoly, and twirls. "Doctor, Doctor, Doctor. It's so beautiful."

He's watching her when he nods. "It is."

Missy blinks over at him, then looks up at the sky. She stares out at the trees, sighs, holds her hands out, fingers outstretched. They reach up in the darkness like long arms, still in the silent cold.

"I want to climb them."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor says, and Missy shrugs. "I can't - there's not enough - "

"It's okay."

Missy walks, her feet cracking through the surface snow, to the powder below, grinning as she sinks, kicks one leg up. Snow flies into the air. She laughs again, kicks. Breaks into a run and cuts across the arc, fighting the soft snow the faster she runs. Missy reaches down, grabs a handful of powder, throws it up over her head and smiles in wonderment as it falls down around her. Some of it hits the barrier and sparks. She jumps, tries to hide it.

The Doctor studies her as she goes back around the interior boundary, stomping in the snow, making deep, dramatic footprints. She smiles at him, turns back to face the trees, in the direction of the equinox line. Missy pauses, looking out into the deep dark. The moons are almost completely gone.

"Don't start a snowball fight you can't win," the Doctor says, reading her mind. "I know you wanted to earlier."

"Not my fault they're not here to help you cheat and win," Missy says, out into the cold, her tone even. Her shoulders slump. "Then again, it's not yours either."

"No."

She doesn't mean Bill and Nardole, and they both know that.

The Doctor waits, and she doesn't move. He sighs, tramps through the snow across to her, breath and feet loud in the silence. Missy reaches out blindly. After an agonising moment, the Doctor gives in, and takes her outstretched hand. She holds his fingers in hers, her skin freezing.

"I feel small," she says quietly. "But not angry about that. Just, little. A good little."

She's just holding, not squeezing, not pulling. The Doctor moves behind her, and stands there. Missy takes his other hand in her free hand, slowly moves so their forearms are all crossed over on her stomach, his chest to her back. Missy rests the back of her head on his shoulder, looks up at the stars.

"Is this okay?" she murmurs.

"Yes."

"Okay."

Silence, for a moment. They breathe together.

"Do you remember when we were little?" he asks, and she nods, hair moving against his cheek. "Do you remember doing this on my farm?"

"Yes. They were some of the best nights of my childhood. Even when Brax threw those water-bombs at us and our clothes froze while we walked home. Well. I walked. I had to piggy-back you, because you tripped over that rock chasing your brother. My back hurt for a week."

The Doctor chuckles, and Missy smiles softly, twists her head around to look at him. The stars are reflected in his eyes, and they're the silver in his hair. He looks down at her, their noses almost brushing.

"Can I kiss you?" Missy asks. "I think I'd quite like to."

He's sending out some strong psychic waves, so Missy doesn't wait for him to say yes. She leans up, twisting her neck awkwardly and misses, gets him on the corner of his mouth. The Doctor chuckles against her cheek, drops his hands to her hips. Missy turns properly, presses up against him, tucks her face into his warm neck. The Doctor flinches when her cold nose touches his skin. He holds her hips carefully, thumbs stroking her sides.

"Do you want to stay out here?" he asks.

"No," Missy says. "It's too beautiful."

"I was worried I'd turned you into an agoraphobe," the Doctor says, trailing one of his hands up her back. "Missy?"

"No."

"Okay."

They stand, one huddled mass in the snow. Slowly, the Doctor brings his hand up, cups the back of her bare neck. Missy shivers. 

"I know what you said about the Vault. But. I think," says Missy, sliding her arms so they're under his coat, secure around his waist. "I'd quite like to go to bed with you." Her psychic intent is quite clear. "I'm not wrong that you could be made to reciprocate those feelings?"

His hands on her back, five points of pressure.

"I don't think I even need to be made," the Doctor says, and Missy smiles against his skin, breathes in his smell. "I'm feeling quite reciprocal."

Another pause. The last of the moonlight seeps away, and all that's left is the faint glow of the barrier lights, and the white light through the TARDIS doors. Missy makes a disappointed noise.

"Come on, before you catch a cold," the Doctor says, taking a step backwards. "You've been isolated in the Vault for far too long." Missy reluctantly follows him, making noises of complaint. "You know, the more you act like a child, the less I want to sleep with you. For obvious reasons."

Missy snorts and stumbles, then falls over laughing. The Doctor grabs her waist, helps her up, and then she feels a sudden sense of weightlessness. Missy shrieks as the Doctor slings her into his arms. She flails, wraps her arms around his neck.

"I'm not freezing to death because you think I'm the most hilarious, handsome, scary space genius in the universe," the Doctor says, his steps through the snow a slow struggle with her added weight.

"You're not a scary space genius," Missy says.

The Doctor pauses at the TARDIS doorway, puts her down carefully. Missy's shoes make little tapping noises on floor.

"What am I, then?"

Missy runs her thumb along his cheekbone, looks up at him, eyes piercing. She smiles. The Doctor takes her hand, lifts it to his mouth, kisses her cold fingers.

"My first friend, and my best friend," she says. The Doctor smiles into her palm. "The boy who tried to kiss me and missed. The boy who swore we'd go and see the stars together, one day. But always, first and foremost, my friend."

"So you heard that conversation with Bill?"

"Every word. Did you mean it?"

The Doctor leans down, brushes their noses together. He stoops, picks her up again. Missy grins, wraps her arms around his neck.

"Every word," he says.

Missy leans across and kisses him deeply, pointing one of her legs. After a few stuttering steps towards his bedroom, the Doctor puts her down with a groan.

"Not going down a staircase with your deadweight in my arms," he says, taking her hand, and Missy guffaws. "Come on."

"Do you reckon you'll ever convince her and Nardole to try one of your - scenarios, with me?"

"I live in hope. I always do."

 

*** * ***

 

Afterwards, Missy can't stop touching him. She presses him into the pillows and drops kisses across his face and throat, along his chest. She runs her hands along his arms, down his belly, sucks at his neck. The Doctor rests his hands on her hips, rubs her soft skin. She catches his mouth, licks along his jaw. The Doctor nuzzles into her hair and waits.

"So how about that - " he pauses, lets Missy kiss his mouth again. He speaks against her lips. "Missy, calm down, I'm sore. My mouth hurts. Aren't you sore?"

"A little," says Missy. She kisses his shoulder. "A bit." She kisses the same spot, opens her mouth against his skin, presses her teeth into his flesh. She hums. 

"Oh, you're staying there," the Doctor says, and lifts one hand to stroke her hair back, then down her spine. "Happy? One tap for yes, two for no."

She pokes him in the nose. Once. The Doctor rubs her back slowly, up and down, small circles. He tips his head, presses his mouth against her hair, breathes in her smell. He twists one of her curls around his fingers, tucks it behind her ear.

"I'll try and be more open," the Doctor murmurs. "You know, acknowledge how well you're doing. You've come far."

Missy releases his shoulder. "I've come often," she jokes, and the Doctor laughs, pushes her off him onto the mattress. "No, no," she says, moving against him, sliding her thigh between his legs. "Okay. Comfy? Continue."

"I'm proud of you. I'm impressed," he says, then wrinkles his nose. "I think we've lost the moment."

"No, no, we can bring it back," MIssy says. "Where do you want me to bite you? High or low, odd or even?"

The Doctor gives up and kisses her softly. Missy hums, rolls on top of him. She cradles his face, swipes her tongue along his lower lip.

"Okay," whispers Missy, settling onto her side again, tugging the blankets up around their chests. "Moment's back. Praising-me-time."

"I'll try and meet you in the middle," the Doctor says. "I - we - "

There's a knock at the door. "Doctor?" calls Nardole, and Missy makes an annoyed noise. "Can I - "

"NO!" the Doctor shouts, pulling the blankets up to his chin.

Missy shoves the blankets back, throws herself into a lascivious pose, leering at the closed door. Outside, Nardole continues,

"It's the TARDIS doors, they're open, I think Missy's - "

"No, she hasn't!" the Doctor calls, struggling up, shoving his hand over Missy's mouth. She bites him. He growls. "She's, Missy's in here - she's - " he pulls a face as Missy sniggers. "She's in here with me."

"Ah - oh," says Nardole. "Oh. Oh, my. Uh, why?"

Missy bats the Doctor's hand off her mouth. She bounces up and down on the mattress, making obscene noises. It's both painfully embarrassing, and horribly arousing, and the Doctor rolls over onto her, pushes her into the pillows. She wraps her legs around his waist. He covers her mouth again, and Missy licks his fingers.

"Five, seconds - " he says. "Shut it, please."

Outside, Nardole's footsteps retreat, panicked and quick.

"Why?" Missy asks, and smirks. "Nardole gets what we're doing - actually, you know, Bill knows we're fucking, right? You told her, I was your first crush. She thinks you're in love with me."

"Does she know that you love me back?" the Doctor says.

Something flickers across Missy's face, and her eyes widen. She's shocked, and she's hurt. The Doctor panics, sitting back between her thighs.

"Uh," he says. "Sorry. Sorry."

Missy blows air out between her lips, stares at him, hair tangled around her head, eyes very blue. She purses her mouth, sits up, smoothing her hair down. She takes a deep breath. "It's not like it's a secret."

"I didn't want to throw it - in your face," he says. "Missy."

Missy pauses, watching his expression. She tucks her hair behind her ears, then chuckles, moves so she's practically in his lap.

"Hey," she says, and kisses him. "Hey." Another kiss. "Hey." A third kiss, and this one's a bit longer. There's tongue. "Doctor, Doctor, Doctor."

"What? What is - " the Doctor tries to ask, and Missy kisses him, cuts him off. "What?"

"It's a good thing, if we can talk about it. I suppose. We should try to talk about it." Missy leans back, squints at his face. "I think that's on both of us."

There's a pause, and more footsteps outside in the hallway. They both look at the bedroom door.

"I feel like we're back in my barracks," Missy murmurs, and the Doctor splutters, buries his face in her shoulder, remembering a similar situation thousands of years ago. "Perhaps I should try digging up that uniform."

"Could you pull rank?" he asks.

"Stripped of land, rank, titles, despised by your companions - yeah, no, I don't think that will work."

"Uh, Doctor, and uh - Missy..." comes Nardole's voice. "The - the, the TARDIS has cooled down, she's flyable. Bill wants to go home."

"Bill's asleep," Missy whispers. "I saw her going past the piano room."

The Doctor kisses her on the cheek. "He thinks we're going to try setting you down in time next. Wants to avoid that."

"Aren't we?"

"Well, let me just pick up some distress signals and do my washing first," says the Doctor. "We'll do it soon, but there's no point rushing, making a hash of it. I want them to enter into this willingly."

"Says the being who let me out of the Vault nine hundred years early."

"It's because - I have faith in you," says the Doctor, and he kisses her on the cheek again. "Hm?"

There's another knock on the door.

"Uh - I'm still here," says Nardole. "Could you - are you awake?"

"Yes! Yes, we're awake," the Doctor says. "Give me two minutes, I'll get us back to Earth."

"Alright, alright, alright," Nardole says, and he grumbles as he walks off and out of earshot.

Missy shuffles backwards off the Doctor's lap, falls back against the pillows. She lifts her leg, presses her bare foot against his shoulder. She gives him a look. She's either ready for round two, or wants a snack. It could be both.

"I'm going," says the Doctor. "You can help, if you want. I'll let you - " he shoves her foot off of him. "You can - "

"I'll stay here, don't worry," says Missy. She sighs, reaches over the bed and picks his old jumper off the floor. "Come back soon."

Missy pulls his jumper over her head. The Doctor rolls off the mattress and finds his clothes, dresses himself. He draws the covers up over Missy's legs, sits on the mattress, kisses her temple.

"Be good," he says.

"I'm trying," says Missy. She lies down, smiles at him. "Doctor."

"Mistress. Get some sleep. I'll come see you when I've sent Bill and Nardole off."

"I'll try. Doctor?"

He straightens his shirt. "Yes?"

"Thank you for the snow."

"Any time."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it - comments and feedback are always appreciated :)


End file.
